Trump Cabinet confirmation hearings **live commentary thread**

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Protesters working hard to make sure sessions gets confirmed

Every one of Trump's choices are going to get confirmed except possibility Tillerson.

Mnuchin could seriously make it as well, they are bringing people who lost their lives & livelihood. There will be something in his financial statements which will cause problems for sure.

I think if Dems can get the 48 voting bloc, 3 votes can be received. McCain is a Glass Steagal guy (McCain-Feingold act). So if there's problem maybe you need 2 more. Maybe Graham.

And maybe Flake or Paul if there is a big conflict of interest problem. Same with Tillerson, if you get 48 votes, McCain & Graham could make it 50 & then you need only 1 more out of 50 GOP guy & I am sure there are some Russia hawks in there.

The EPA guy should have been target No.1 in a Dem Senate but not with Manchin & the GOP people.

Sessions will win 60+ votes, the guy served in the Senate with these people!

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Little Marco will only act tough but not vote against Trump!

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Tillerson is a crony but he is a smart guy. Carson is flat out stupid!

"Child Molester" Pathological Super Low Energy Ben Carson in Trump's words!

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Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department, GOP Congressman Ryan Zinke, faced an intense line of questioning on Tuesday when Sen. Bernie Sanders took him to task for some of his more troubling climate change beliefs.

“I’m not a climate scientist expert, but I can tell you I will become a lot more familiar with it … I don’t know definitively – there’s a lot of debate on both sides of the aisle” when it comes to how people are affecting the climate.

At that point, Sanders stopped Zinke in his tracks to correct him.

“Actually, there’s not a whole lot of debate now,” Sanders said. “The scientific community is virtually unanimous that climate change is real and causing devastating problems. There is a debate on this committee, but not within the scientific community.”

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Sanders to Betsy - Is is true that your family has given around 200M $ to Trump & the Republican party over the years

Betsy - Yes it is possible that is the number

Sanders - Do you think you will be sitting here as the nominee if you hadn't paid paid 100's of Millions of $ in campaign contributions?

Betsy - It is possible, I did this...Blah blah...for Children...Blah Blah

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Warren is absolutely running in 2020 I feel. She was savage against Betsy, absolutely destroyed her point by point. She is just damn good. She would be a much bigger leader if only she had more guts & less of a calculating mind.

Sanders was more like - How can you make College affordable? Do you support Tuition Free College? What about Childcare being expensive for a single mom making 30K, what are your ideas? Blah Blah

Warren is like Do you wanna stop Waste Fraud n Abuse? Then how do we get crooks to stop cheating people by making organizations like Trump University & then getting away with a fine?

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Warren is actually a strong VP pick as well as a strong leader in the Senate with a progressive President regardless of who is the POTUS. Any1 can be the leader but you can't touch Ted Kennedy.

Just makes me sad to consider how great a Bernie-Liz team would be on the ticket in 2016. Hillary probably should have chosen her. Imagine Warren vs Pence instead of this low energy uncharismatic (but nice man) Tim Kaine. Warren would have shredded Pence.

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That EPA guy doesn't even believe in Climate Change & has attacked the EPA throughout his life. And then Price is horrible too on healthcare. Really bad picks. A Dem Senate would have kept some of these nominees in check & Trump had to nominate some moderates.

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McCain supports Glass Steagal etc so maybe he could be worked on for Mnuchin. But I think Mnuchin goes through, they pay too much money for people like Booker to Gillibrand!

Apparently Mnuchin failed to disclose 100M$ assets & massive money stashed in Cayman islands & tax havens!

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Looks like all of Trump's picks are gonna go in. The GOP has no backbone & people like Graham don't have much of a base. The GOP voters will swing anywhere & everywhere from neocons to Russia loving based on what their liberal hating white rage leader tells them.

Neocon & Russia hate is dead for the time beginning till a new leader comes !

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Ben Sasse, Jeff Flake etc can vote against Devos can't they? Surely someone else can vote!

Any nominee voted down in a Republican majority Senate will be a massive embarrassment for the Republican party!

Imagine the Trump tweets - He is gonna burn the GOP senators!

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King is voting Yes on most GOP nominees. But Warner from VA is possibly the most damaging & the most conservative of all Dem Senators - He needs to face a primary!

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If DeVos ends up being 50-50, with Pence as the tie-breaking vote, surely Republicans know the backlash they're going to face for that...

Anyone who is going to be extremely upset over devos being confirmed as education Secretary is already a hardcore democrat, odds are we hear very little about her if she gets confirmed

Devos is just so utterly incompetent and so clearly motivated by donations. She doesn't have the credentials for the job.

Every cabinet has patronage appointments unfortunately but this is a position that has very little power in a department that is controlled mostly by mid-level bureaucrats.

Yeah, but does it have to be this obvious? Make her ambassador to some county and call it even.

In hindsight devos was ridiculously controversial for an education Secretary(she'll still likely get confirmed with pence as a tiebreaker) there are charter school advocates with much less baggage

Moskowitz and Rhee were options A and B, but both said no.

I'm guessing that if she isn't confirmed, Trump will go nuclear and nominate Bill Evers.

He can nominate anyone he wants - He will have egg on his face & will be the president with having a nominee voted down in many decades while having a majority in the Senate.

Oh boy, I am waiting for the tweets! Schumer should play it in his face - We'll get to see a 5 year boy throwing tantrums & name calling like you have never seen before!

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Maybe Dean Heller could vote against DeVos?

Yea, he is up for election in 2020. or McCain!

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Maybe Dean Heller could vote against DeVos?

Yea, he is up for election in 2020. or McCain!

(Dean Heller is up in 2018)

But yeah, it would be really nice if we could get that one extra vote. McCain and Graham are also possibilities. So close...

Yea 2018, typo. Graham supports, Sasse suports, Heller supports.

McCain is the only home - Some people are targeting Toomey & Portman (PA & OH)

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Price and Mnuchin advance 51-48

Who abstained?

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Susan Collins election is less about moderate or not - She is just very highly liked. She is the 2nd most popular Senator after Bernie Sanders. She has massive favorables. She will absolutely win in Senate election.

Dems should try to get King to be a D & move him leftwards in policies & attack the Warner, Menendez crowd in blue states !

Warren-Sanders are 70+, get new strong progressives in blue states!

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Warren-Sanders are 70+, get new strong progressives in blue states!

You mean their age or their poll numbers?  Because last time I checked, Warren was 67 years old, not 70+.

I think he meant she'd be 70+ if she were to be sworn in 1/20/2021.

But I thought the conversation was about Dems in the Senate, not Dems who should be in the White House?

They'd be 70+ in 2020, I think 1 of them is getting nominated & if Bernie is there, Liz is VP pick (Bernie is too old probably). Point is you need strong progressives in the Senate from 2020!

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You have to be flat out delusional to extremely stupid to thing Kerry was unqualified? John Kerry was one of the better persons to have served in SOS in decades, from Iran Deal to Paris Climate Deal & he was not soft with extremists like Netanyahu & Saudis like Bush was. He was a much better SoS than Hillary.

He is a war veteran with multiple purple hearts & studied law. He was the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the LG of Mass & a Senator for close to 20 years including a Presidential Nominee. You have to insanely dumb & a partisan hack to deny he is qualified !